Harold Corwin

NGC 3404 = IC 2609. Common's declination for NGC 3404 is about 14 arcmin off, though his RA is close. Even though Dreyer has the corrected NPD in the IC2 Notes (from Herbert Howe), he did not make the connection with IC 2609.

Nor did Bigourdan, who redisovered the galaxy and made it a "nova". He searched twice for NGC 3404 at its nominal position, but only saw some faint stars in the area. His observations of the galaxy are good, though; reduced with respect to a modern position for his comparison star, they fall within a few arcsec of the nucleus.

Knox Shaw, in Helwan Observatory Bulletin No. 15, also made the correction to the Dec of the NGC object. He was also the first to suggest the identity, repeating the position of NGC 3404 for IC 2609, but putting a question mark on the note: "? = NGC 3404. There is, however, a vF, vS neb. susp. 1.2 arcmin n and 0.4 arcmin f 3404." This, of course, is not IC 2609.

― NGC Notes by Harold Corwin

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